Leader’s announcements

At the beginning of each Council meeting the Leader of the Council goes through the significant events since the previous meeting. This weeks announcements cover the three week period since the last full Council:

WARRINGTON BC – 28 MARCH 2011 – LEADER’S ANNOUNCEMENTS

Correspondence with Government Ministers

  • Letter sent by three party leaders to Michael Gove MP inviting him to visit William Beamont High School and the Orford Park Project
  • Letter sent to George Osborne MP and Vince Cable MP expressing the Council’s interest in establishing an Enterprise Zone on the Winwick Road Corridor
  • The first wave of Vanguard Zones was announced in the Budget on 23 March
  • Letter received from Tim Loughton MP in response to our letter regarding the Children’s Services assessment
  • The letter confirms that the Government is looking closely at the future of Ofsted

Academies

  • The three party leaders and the unions are issuing a joint statement on academies
  • This will be circulated to all members but confirms that none of us has ‘an appetite’ for academies in Warrington
  • We believe our schools perform at a high standard and that collaboration between them works well
  • The provision of education within Warrington is carefully balanced and would be disrupted by conversion of schools to academy status

Budget

  • I am delighted to note that the Chancellor did not increase the fuel duty in his budget last week and listened to the advice the Deputy Leader and I gave him!
  • I am also delighted that the Chancellor is giving an additional £100m to councils for dealing with potholes following the winter problems.  This is in addition to the £100m announced in February
  • I have a letter from Philip Hammond, the Secretary of State, to tell us Warrington will be receiving an extra £555,292 to be paid on 28 March as our share
  • This is most welcome because the state of our roads is something residents are very concerned about and is one of our priorities for action
  • We also welcome the intent to simplify the bureaucracy in the planning system
  • Finally a few comments on our own budget which we debated at the last Council
  • On behalf of the Administration I would like to thank all the officers in the Council for their work on the budget.  The service challenge process we conducted was extremely thorough and businesslike
  • The work we started last year in preparation has proved extremely beneficial and enabled us to declare less redundancies and less cuts to frontline services than many other councils in the region
  • There has been excellent co-operation with staff and unions and we are very grateful for this

Warrington Market

  • There has been widespread indignation at the proposal to increase the business rates on our 750 year old award winning market by 79%
  • The proper title is National Non Domestic Rates which are collected by the Council but passed directly to national government
  • The rate is assessed, calculated and set by the Valuation Office Agency which is part of HM Revenue and Customs
  • At present the market has one rateable value as a whole and the NNDR is paid by the Council as the landlord
  • The Valuation Office has embarked on a national review of all seventy covered markets
  • It is proposing to charge each of the 136 businesses separately and we were informed of this in February with the change to be made from April 2011 – about one month’s notice
  • The current £440,000 would go up by 79% to £789,000
  • Small  business relief for some may be available but there is no certainty
  • In the current economic climate, not many businesses can sustain such an increase in outgoings
  • If businesses quit or fail due to this change, this will have a significant impact on the market – not only in vacant stalls and loss of licence fee income but the general vitality of the market and the town centre
  • Currently 600 people are employed in the 230 stalls and shops in the market
  • There will be a huge increase in administration and bureaucracy – 136 assessments, invoices and collections rather than one, with a greater risk of non-payment of NNDR
  • We feel it destroys opportunities for enterprise and small businesses to start, grow and develop
  • So what are we doing?
  • We are appealing but this may take twelve months or more
  • We are co-ordinating objections with other markets in the region
  • We have jointly appointed a national NNDR expert to advise us
  • We are proposing to reduce licence fees by the amount that traders have to pay for the new NNDR liability from 1 April
  • We are meeting frequently with traders to co-ordinate activity

Health and Wellbeing Board

  • Following interviews held on 9 March, I am pleased to inform you that Professor Steven Broomhead has been appointed the Independent Chairperson of the Health and Wellbeing Board
  • The board’s remit will include agreeing priorities to address health and social care needs, to work with the new Warrington Health Consortium, to improve health in general and to oversee arrangements for the transfer of public health to the Council
  • The board will be made up of councillors, GPs, members of the patient involvement organisation Health Watch, the directors of public health, adult social care and children’s services, neighbourhood representatives and the voluntary sector
  • Warrington is one of the local authorities that have been granted ‘early implementer status’ for setting up this board

Olympics Event / Time Capsule Project

  • Olympics Day was held on 15 March  – 500 days from the start of the 2012 games
  • The event involved approximately 300 children from Year 5 of the seven William Beamont feeder primary schools
  • The schools took part in activities to celebrate the Olympic and Paralympic values, relating these to their own lives in Orford
  • The best pieces generated from the activities are to be put into individual schools’ time capsules which will be buried on site towards the end of 2011

Omega

  • The Omega Steering Group met with representatives from Millers on 10 March
  • Later on Millers also met with the local ward councillors
  • At last things are starting to happen and I am very confident that at last we will soon be having some activity on the site
  • My colleague Bob Barr will say more on this when he answers a question later on

First Time Buyer Mortgage Initiative

  • A pioneering scheme to help first time buyers who can afford mortgage repayments but not a large deposit, get onto the housing ladder is being piloted by five local authorities including Warrington
  • The scheme has been developed with Sector Treasury Services, part of the Capita Group
  • We will provide financial assistance to fund up to 20% of a first time buyer’s mortgage, by lodging the funds with the lender
  • Lloyds TSB is the first high-street bank to join the scheme as a mortgage provider but we hope others will follow
  • Local authorities will only incur actual costs if a loss is incurred by the mortgage lender further down the line
  • This should help 250 local people become first time buyers and at the same time generate a return for the council of up to 4.25% over the five-year period
  • This scheme will not only help first time buyers, but also stimulate the local housing economy, freeing up rented accommodation and helping those trying to sell their properties to move on

Earth Hour – Saturday, 26 March

  • The Council is due to part in the World Wildlife Fund’s ‘Earth Hour’ on Saturday 26 March 2011 from 8.30-9.30pm
  • During Earth Hour people all over the world will turn off their lights to show they care about protecting the natural world and to urge world leaders to take action to tackle climate change
  • Last year over 120 local authorities in the UK took part and this year is the fourth year running for Warrington
  • The Council is working hard to tackle climate change on a number of fronts and is proud to be involved with ‘Earth Hour’

Local Enterprise Partnership

  • The inaugural meeting of the Cheshire and Warrington LEP Board was held on Saturday, 12 March
  • The Board appointed Christine Gaskell who is a member of the Board of Bentley Motors in Crewe as its first chairperson
  • Members of the Board have already met Mark Prisk MP. Business and Enterprise Minister, to discuss the way forward
  • On 25 March they are also meeting here in this chamber with senior civil servants from CLG and BIS
  • These meetings are all designed to continue to increase the profile and visibility of Warrington and our sub-region with government

Marketing Cheshire

  • ‘Visit Chester and Cheshire’, the tourism body for Cheshire and Warrington, is set to reshape its role in April
  • It will be renamed as ‘Marketing Cheshire’ and be responsible for place marketing and promotion, as well as the traditional support to the visitor economy
  • The organisation will switch from a reliance on public sector funding to a model based on private sector support from members and commercial partners
  • The new organisation will work closely with local authority partners and the LEP and its formation demonstrates our confidence in the future prosperity of our sub-region

Business Forum

  • Following on from the success of our autumn Business Conference, we are proposing to set up a Business Forum to develop the relationships between the council and businesses in the town
  • A preliminary meeting has been held and the Forum will be set up in the near future

New funding for the former coalfields

  • The government announced on 10 March that there will be new funding to promote regeneration in England’s former coalfields
  • The Coalfields Regeneration Trust which mainly provides support to community-based initiatives, will receive £30m for the period to March 2013, with the prospect of additional funding, probably £22m, for the following two years
  • A further £150m has been earmarked to honour existing commitments within the coalfield site reclamation programme run by the Homes and Communities Agency

Warrington Baths

  • The sale of the former Warrington Baths site has just been completed
  • The NHS developer will now demolish the buildings and build a new town centre clinic to replace Garven Place
  • The Council will get the cleared site of the present Garven Place clinic in twelve months time

New Council Houses

  • The first council houses built in the borough for more than twenty years were officially opened on 23 March
  • The new homes are in Charnock Road Culcheth and will help alleviate a shortage of affordable homes in the area
  • The £3.5 million scheme was built by main contractor Bullock Construction and funded by the Council and the Homes and Community Agency
  • It consists of three two bed bungalows and is the first of seven sites to be completed across Warrington.  There will eventually be thirty-two two bed bungalows for rent
  • Other build locations include Poplars and Hulme and Poulton with Fearnhead
  • They will enable people to downsize whilst staying in the same community

Military ID / Cheers for Heroes

  • The Ministry of Defence has announced that in future pubs and clubs must accept military ID as proof of age
  • David Mowat MP has been lobbying hard to get the rules changed since being elected to Parliament after the issue was brought to his attention when a local soldier was refused entry into a bar in the town centre
  • Councillors have also been lobbying officers to work with local licensed premises to recognise the special circumstances of serving soldiers
  • At present licensed premises have a specific list of acceptable forms of ID but this does not include an Armed Forces ID card.  Soldiers on leave often have their passports held at  barracks leaving them without any form of ID

Supporting Veterans in Warrington

  • A new group is being set up in Warrington to help returning former veterans and their families rejoin civilian life
  • A number of partners are already involved and the group aims to provide a single point of contact for veterans to access all the information and services they might need
  • This may include signposting to the medical help available, finding a new job, new home, school, or simply understanding which benefits they are entitled to
  • Partners currently include the Council, NHS Warrington, Golden Gates Housing, Job Centre Plus, Cheshire Probation Service, Help for Heroes, Royal British Legion, Veteran Coldstream Guards and the Citizens Advice Bureau
  • This is an excellent example of partnership working and I commend all those involved in  this initiative

Hospital Discharge

  • A new Hospital Discharge Team has been established with staff from Halton and Warrington Councils, Warrington and Halton Hospital Foundation Trust and other Health partners
  • It is a multi disciplinary team managed by an integrated manager jointly funded by all partner agencies
  • The aim is to provide a consistent, high quality discharge process for all patients in need of ongoing support after discharge
  • The service will be launched on 1 April and all hospital discharges will be facilitated by the new team rather than community teams

Participatory Appraisal Warrington Group

  • 1800 interviews have been undertaken at the Job Centre so that targeted activity around improving health and getting people back to work in the Coalfields area can be achieved from the insight gained
  • The results are expected at the beginning of April and will be the basis on which work clubs and pre-work activities are delivered in the area

Lavender Hill Project

  • This scheme to promote and support Older People into training and employment will be included in a Panorama Special on older people’s issues on 4 April 2011
  • The title of the programme is ‘Finished at 50?’

Positive Futures

  • We welcome the news that a programme to help prevent young people becoming involved in crime will continue to receive £10m of Home Office funding
  • This means that the ninety-one national ‘Positive Futures’ projects including the one based in Warrington, will be able to continue
  • The Warrington project works with young people and volunteers throughout the town and is expanding its provision. It runs 12 weekly sessions, with over 250 places available free of charge
  • Activities range from community sports clubs, street dancing and volunteer training to intergenerational sports sessions
  • It works with individuals aged from five to seventeen and encourages adult participation and volunteering
  • Its multi agency approach has meant that the impact on specific communities has been substantial.  Targeted work in some of the neediest areas of the town means that young people from deprived backgrounds get the opportunity to fulfill their potential

Inclusion Matters

  • ‘Inclusion Matters’ started as a holiday childcare project for disabled children and young people in Warrington in April 2010
  • Over its first year it has developed an ethos and set of principles with the aim of using what is already available to improve quality and practice with regards to inclusion
  • Warrington was allocated £154,800 for the project from the DFE but this will finish on  31 March 2011
  • The ‘Inclusion Matters’ fund has been able to support 31 young disabled people and 47 groups with grants. This far outreaches the original targets of 15 personal grants and 30 group / childminder grants
  • Although the grants may have finished the ethos and the principles used within ‘Inclusion Matters’ will carry on and the Council will continue this important work

V Talent

  • An event to celebrate the success of this project was held on 2 March for the 15 successful volunteers, their families and the placement providers
  • V Talent is a full-time volunteering programme for young people aged 16-25
  • The idea behind the programme is for V Talent to work with the Council to deliver a compelling, highly visible youth volunteering programme which will be recognised by young people and employers
  • It covers training in drugs and alcohol, safeguarding, and health and safety
  • It also involves an NVQ level 2 in sports and activity leadership
  • As well as giving young people opportunities and qualifications it has helped towards building skills, knowledge, confidence and understanding

Primary Arts Network

  • Performances were given at the Parr Hall on 21 and 23 March by schools which are involved with the Primary Arts Network
  • This is a group of fifty six schools which come together and plan arts activities throughout the year to raise standards in all areas of the curriculum
  • They have a theme each year which is ‘Faces in the Crowd’
  • Children have produced art work which is will be exhibited at the Gateway and Pyramid until May
  • The concerts represent a performing arts opportunity where children explore the ‘Faces in the Crowd’ theme through music, dance and drama
  • Approximately 18 schools took part in the concerts which involved over 600 children
  • Both concerts were paid for by the Warrington Schools’ Arts and Culture Service

Closing the Gap Peer Assessment

  • Last time I briefly reported on the findings from the Local Government Improvement & Development Agency’s Peer Assessment of the ‘Closing the Gap’ programme commissioned by the Warrington Partnership
  • The focus of the assessment was to assess how the Partnership had responded to the two red flags from the Comprehensive Area Assessment for health inequalities and prospects for employment and to review the effectiveness of the programme to ensure real outcomes for residents who live within our most deprived communities
  • The Partnership demonstrated good evidence of improvements across the Closing the Gap framework, evidence of practical local initiatives being delivered, a strong desire and enthusiasm within Warrington to ‘Closing the Gap’ and strong links with the voluntary sector
  • They suggested we consider how we can further improve communication and shared understanding of both the Partnership and our neighbourhood model, review how we engage with our local communities to ensure they all have the chance to participate and simplify our strategies, plans, processes and review the number of meetings we hold
  • On 10 March, the Warrington Partnership approved an improvement plan to deliver the actions identified
  • Overall, the message from the review is very positive in that they recognise we have made significant progress and are delivering improvements on the ground
  • The Council and the Wolves are working with others to submit a bid to host part of the 2013 World Cup
  • Towns across the country will be hoping to be chosen to host games, provide training camps and accommodate teams from around the world
  • To have the World Cup in Warrington would be a huge boost not only for the local economy but also for our sense of community pride
  • We need as many people as possible to get behind the bid and show their support by adding their name to the e-campaign
  • The bid needs to be submitted on 15 April so there’s not much time to sign up
  • Pledging your support is easy, just visit www.warrington.gov.uk/rugby and add your name

Rugby League World Cup bid

Council Group of the Year

  • The Lib Dem Group has been successful in winning a national party award in one of the categories at their annual ‘council of the year’ ceremony
  • The award was for ‘Strengthening Communities’ and was based on our work in Stronger Together and neighbourhood working
  • Congratulations to all involved

Councillor Ian Marks

25 March 2011

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